The Tikori Chronicles: Resurrection
by JensaaraiWraith75
Summary: Book Three of the Tikori Chronicles. It is fifteen years after Ryu's sacrifice and the fall of the Jensaarai but the force is not done with Ryu. Led by its guidance, Brianna seeks to bring her husband back... but in birth, there is always blood...


(The only characters I own in this story are Ryu and James Tikori and Alexander Hunter. Dominique Tikori, Brianna Chase-Tikori, Aria Blackwood and Ava Hunter were all creations of other writers who are my close friends. I have been given permission to use them in any story I write. With that said, let me also say that this story is based off of a story that the writers for Brianna, Dominique, Ava and Aria, and I all wrote together. The storyline was agreed upon and, for the most part, roleplayed out. Much of what is written here is either taken as direct quotes from that story or has been tweaked slightly to fit my writing style. I do this in order to pay homage to the writers who helped bring this story to life.)

**The Mourning Queen**

"_Be patient, my love. Soon we will be together again... very soon."_

Brianna Chase had never been one to feel attachment towards others. She felt devotion and she felt duty, but never attachment that went beyond that which was expected of a leader. She had reached the very pinnacle of her power on her own strength. She had risen through the ranks of her Sith coven. She had battled many people, stared down imposing adversaries, never blinking in the face of hardships, trouble, or even death. She was strong, determined, and a shining example to the rest of her coven for how women of power such as they should carry themselves. Brianna Chase didn't need a man to complete her. She didn't need a man to fight her battles for her or to defend her honor; she was quite capable of doing that herself.

But then again... she was no longer Brianna Chase was she? No. _She_ had faded into insignificance all those years ago on Korriban in the galaxy she now called home; the galaxy she had fled to when her own became too hostile. Brianna Chase had shrunk out of existence that one blissful night in the very residence she now resided in on Korriban. Before the Jensaarai were reborn, before she had returned to the galaxy of her origin, before the Jensaarai Crusades and the Force Purge, she had passed, dying in the arms of a man whom she had met only a few months earlier; a man whose power and very presence had swept her completely off of her feet. From the ashes of Brianna Chase came Brianna Tikori, wife of Ryu Tikori.

Where Brianna Chase was strong and self-reliant, Brianna Tikori found herself weak and lost without her husband. When he wasn't around, she was still the same powerful, strong-willed Brianna that had made her the High Priestess of her Sith coven, but he was the part of her that was missing. He was the puzzle piece whose edges were the exact shape to be placed in the hole that was missing in her soul. She needed him in order to go on. In the past, Brianna Chase had learned to disregard the gaping hole and had ignored its growl to be filled. But when she met Ryu for the first time, when she got to know him, when she spent every day with him planning the Jensaarai's hostile takeover... and when she had made love to him that first night, that hole was filled. It no longer longed to be given attention, for it was satisfied. It no longer hungered for something to fill the void, for it had exactly what it needed. She was whole for the first time in her life. She had always thought the cliché to be cheesy but Ryu completed her in a very real way; a way that she would not have thought possible in her early years as a priestess in the coven.

But now, once again, she was without the man who had defined her existence; torn from him in the fires of rebellion and ripped from his grasp by the trap set in the Jensaarai temple. Now, there was measureless distance between them. For Ryu was not simply in a different region of the galaxy; he had not gone to a different planet from her. Ryu had sacrificed himself in order to save her life and the life of their young son, James. He was dead and that piece of her soul that had filled the gap in her spirit had suddenly evaporated, leaving the hole begging to be filled once more.

"Ryu..." she breathed the word softly into the empty air filling the bedroom where she and her husband had shared their first magical night, saying his name as if it were dangerous to say aloud. Truth be told, his name _was_ dangerous to her. It conjured up so many images and so many thoughts; memories that were hard to linger upon. It hurt her knowing that Ryu was gone. It tore her to pieces, especially in the light of the sacrifice he made to save her. She missed him so much. She ached for him, ached to just see him; to feel his warmth against her once more; to hold his powerful frame against hers. She was empty without him. She was nothing but a hollow shell; an egg that had been cracked only to long for its yolk back.

How miserable this existence was. Desperately, Brianna tried to ignore the yearning in her soul for the man that she loved. She tried to regain the strength and self-reliance that she had had before meeting Ryu. She restarted her coven in this new galaxy, the galaxy where she met Ryu. She was powerful as ever, beautiful as she had been all those years ago, respected even more so than she had been prior because of her involvement in the Jensaarai Crusades and the Force Purge. Yet none of that mattered. She learned quickly that, once you knew what true completeness and satisfaction felt like, it was impossible to let it go. She still needed him, still longed for him, and nothing could ever fill the void that he left.

Finally, after years of trying to stave off her depression and emptiness, Brianna had resolved that the only way to quell her feelings was to bring back the man that she loved. Selfish? Perhaps. But living like this was torment. It was hell, this existence. It was like having the sun taken from the sky and being left in the cold and bitter darkness. She needed the light in her life back, needed him to survive. So she delved into her studies, finding new purpose and meaning among the ancient tomes of her coven. There was so much to know; so many intricacies that she knew would take a long time to memorize. Many days, she would remain locked away in the studies at her coven's temple and in the house Ryu once called home so many years ago. There were times when she would not see James for days while she studied and learned from the ancient Sith Priestesses.

"_James..."_ the subconscious mention of her son immediately conjured his face in her mind's eye, _"my how you've grown."_

It had been fifteen years since the day that Brianna, James and the caretaker named Kitara had fled the Jensaarai temple and fled the galaxy to the one that they now lived in. She couldn't imagine what it was like for James. Then again, he probably barely remembered the man who fathered him. He was only five at the time. Perhaps he had flash backs and snippets of memories, but nothing concrete. She felt bad for her son. He had never had the pleasure of knowing the exemplary man that Ryu Tikori had been.

She also felt bad for the way that she acted for the majority of James' life. She had been so protective; so clingy. But James was the last remaining relic of a life that had been taken from her. He was the last remaining vestige of her life with Ryu and her life as a Jensaarai queen. Their departure from the galaxy had been so swift and so sudden that she had no time to grab anything else that may have been important to her. Not that anything was more important than her son, but it would have been nice, especially considering that returning there now was far too dangerous. The temple was likely under tight security and if they were caught, they would likely be killed on the spot. No. Returning for something as trivial as that was out of the question. James was all she had. No pictures, no memento, no keepsake... nothing. Just James.

Even James was hard to look at sometimes. He looked so much like his father. At nearly twenty, James had developed a personality of his own... but damned if he wasn't almost exactly like Ryu. Strong, determined, caring, compassionate, fierce, and, she had to admit, extremely good looking. So close to his father was James that sometimes, when she only caught a glimpse of him from the corner of her eye, she would swear it had been Ryu.

But there were differences. For instance, Ryu's muscle structure was immense. Years of hard combat and extensive training for assassination missions had made his body one huge mountain of strength and deadly precision. Ryu's force powers had also been extremely developed, often knowing force techniques that Brianna had never even heard of. Ryu was a mastermind of battle. The same could not be said of James. It wasn't that James wasn't strong or that he didn't have the potential. In fact, based on the force signature that Brianna felt from him, she would guess that James had even more potential than his father. So strong was his connection to the force that tasks that Ryu had taught Brianna that she had struggled somewhat with came easy to James.

The trouble was that James didn't have a proper mentor. Brianna had done her best to train the growing force acolyte, but her focus was in magic and sorcery, not in the skills of battle. Brianna had hoped to have Ryu's sister, Dominique, help in James' training, but Domi, as Ryu used to call her, had been gone for quite some time. Brianna had known that Dominique would take Ryu's death hard. And she did. But after a couple months, something changed in Domi. While Brianna had no doubt in her mind that the loss of her brother had devastated Domi, it became clear that she now saw it more as an opportunity to take the reins. She now considered herself the "Head of the Tikori family." Domi had taken her new position very seriously and immediately began to make the Tikori name known throughout the galaxy that she had always called home. Brianna thought it was odd, but who was she to tell Domi how to run her life or how to take Ryu's death?

Because of Dominique's new focus, James had been stuck with Brianna for a master. She did a decent enough job at teaching the young man the intricacies of the force, but he deserved more. Had Ryu and Brianna had a girl, Brianna could've simply brought her into the coven to be trained as a Force Priestess. But James was a male and an intimidating specimen of one at that. He simply needed proper training. Luckily, guided by the force, James had come into contact with an old friend of Ryu's from his time living in this galaxy. Her name was Immolate Sanaz, an extremely influential Lady of the Sith. Brianna had met her on only a few occasions, but every time that she did, she realized why the Lady of the Sith, given the titles of "Lady of Judgment" and "The Rouge Queen", was so feared by much of this galaxy. James would get proper training from her; training that would be second only to being trained by Ryu himself. Perhaps, once Brianna brought him back, James would get the chance to train under his father. That would be Brianna's dream come true.

"_But what if, when he's brought back, he has no memory of his past life?"_ Brianna thought to herself with dread._ "What if he's like a new born in a grown man's body?"_ She would not be able to handle that; being reunited with the man she loves only to have him not remember a thing about who she was or what they went through together. _"No. That won't happen. It can't."_ Brianna's need and want to have him back outweighed all of her doubts and fears. _"Besides, Ryu wanted this too."_

Such a statement was not one made out of assumptions or desperation. During one particular study session where she had driven her consciousness deep into the force in a heavy meditative state, Ryu had appeared to her through the force. He knew what she was planning and he knew the answers that she sought. He had been her guide deep into the force, showing her the answers that she needed. After she had her answers, Brianna asked Ryu if this was what he wanted or if he was at peace on the other side. Despite taking quite a bit of time to contemplate his answer, Ryu spoke softly to his wife.

"_I don't want you to be deceived, my love," _he had begun when answering her question through the force, _"life beyond the grave _is_ true peace and paradise. I cannot describe to you what this life is like. But I feel that it is destiny which brings you to me seeking answers on the ritual of resurrection. You have been moved by the force to do so and I have been moved by the force to give you the answers. That is why I came to you today. My death was necessary, not only so that you would live, but so that other things may align and so that the force's will would be fulfilled. There is still more for me to accomplish in the living. So yes, my love, it is time to return to your side and nothing would make me happier."_

It wasn't necessarily the answer she had expected. It wasn't the overwhelming "yes, I need to return to you" that she had hoped from the husband that she loved so dearly. But she could not imagine the paradise in which he now lived. She had prepared herself for him to say no; that he would prefer to remain where he was and as he was. But he hadn't. He had confirmed what she felt. It was the will of the force and it was time for him to return.

So Brianna continued planning her husband's return. She continued to study and push herself further into the ancient writings of rituals and further into her meditations. Her run-ins with Ryu from the other side had become more frequent, though it was always bitter sweet. She could see him, hear his voice, but never touch him. On many occasions, she had tried. She reached out a hand through the force, hoping to feel his warmth, but nothing happened. Because she was in meditation, she didn't have a real body with which to touch him, nor did Ryu have a physical body with which to touch back. It was an odd sensation, one that left her cold and wanting. But she pressed on. Seeing him and hearing his voice but not being able to kiss him or hold him was torture, but it would all be worth it when he had returned from the dead. Then she would make up for lost time.

Gratefully, that day was upon her; the day that her lover would be returned to her. She woke up early that morning, too excited by what would take place today. By the time the sun set, Ryu would be back in her arms. She would spend tonight in his strong embrace. But first, she had to get through this mission. That would likely prove to be the hardest part.

She couldn't accomplish this mission on her own. She needed others; needed more power. It was extremely difficult to grab a spirit and drag it back to the physical plane of existence and squeeze it back into a body. But how many would drop everything at Brianna's request? She was not as well connected in this galaxy as Ryu had been. Her only option was to contact friends and family. That, however, may prove to be what destroys this mission.

The team that she hoped would embark on this mission would be her, James, Domi, Aria Blackwood (the most proficient student in Brianna's coven), and Alexander Hunter (Ryu's first son by Ava Hunter, Ryu's first wife). The problems, however, were great and her doubts hung on too many unknowns. There was a feud between Ryu's two sons, Dominique could possibly be opposed to bringing Ryu back and thus ending her reign as "Head of the Family," and Alexander and Aria had had a fling once that ended badly. All of these things had the potential to start a fight amongst the group that could throw the entire mission off course. Brianna prayed to the Force that things would go smoothly... but she knew that there was a very real possibility that they would not.

Despite all of this, Brianna was left with no other options. All of them were crucial to the success of the mission. Brianna had no choice but to risk it. If this was truly the will of the force, then things would go smoothly. She had faith that they would.

So with her mind made up, Brianna recorded her message from her bed chambers. "Greetings Dominique, my sister-in-law, James, my son, Alexander, my step-son, and Aria, my prodigal student. As you know I have made it my quest these past few months to figure out a way to bring Ryu back to us. During my many meditation sessions, Ryu came to me through the force and helped me to find the answers that I sought. He is ready to return to us. Enclosed are the coordinates for where we will all gather. From there, we will travel together to the temple where Ryu gave his life. I urge you to put aside your differences and join me on this quest. Ryu needs us. If you have questions, I will answer them when you arrive at the meeting place. Travel safe and I will see you soon."

With that, she sent out the message to their respective destinations. James would receive his at his apartment on Lady Immolate's castle grounds on Alderaan. Dominique would hopefully receive hers at her residence on Coruscant where Brianna had last heard she was staying. Aria would get the message within moments in her bedroom at the coven. And Alex would receive his in the ship he was on. Alexander had been difficult to track down. Only through intense meditation and help from the all-seeing eyes of the force was she able to pinpoint his location to send him the message.

With that done, Brianna began to pack her bag with the items that the ritual required. But as she finished packing and began to leave the house to head for the meeting location, she felt that something was wrong. The force was calling to her, tugging at her heart and telling her that there was more to be done. She couldn't place her finger on what it could be though. She set her bag down and went through it, checking and double checking to make sure she had all the ingredients and objects that she would need, but even after she confirmed and reaffirmed that she had in fact grabbed everything, the feeling still never went away.

Realizing that the only way to figure out what she forgot would be to give in to the force and allow it to speak to her, she sat down and fell smoothly into a meditative state so as to communicate with the force. What it told her that she still needed to do was a little surprising. There was someone else that she was supposed to bring along on this mission. Though she thought it a bit strange that the force was so adamant about having this person come along, Brianna did as the force instructed. There was clearly a reason for this person to be there. Who was Brianna to question the will of the force?

After recording a specialized messaged for this person, Brianna sent it off to Naboo where it would find its intended receiver. With peace flooding over her from the force, Brianna knew that she had done all that the force required and that she wasn't forgetting anything. So she left the comfortable atmosphere of Ryu's old house and made her way to the meeting spot. It wasn't far, but even in the cool air of her land speeder, the heat and dryness of the Korriban atmosphere made the trip feel like it lasted forever.

When finally she had made it to the secret hangar of her coven, Brianna went straight to her coven's flagship "The Black Rose" and boarded via the landing ramp that extended from the bottom of the ship. There, she would wait. It would be a while before her team began to arrive so she decided to pass the time with a quick nap. Because she had woken up so early in her excitement, Brianna now found herself drained and tired. So after setting up an alarm system to go off whenever a ship landed in the general proximity and a brief walk through the halls of the ship, she came to a private bedroom where she collapsed on the clean, fresh smelling covers of the bed.

Even before she had a chance to get comfortable under the covers, she had fallen asleep, her mind drifting off into fantastic dreams of Ryu and what it will be like to once again have him back in her arms... and in her bed.

End chapter one.

**Next Chapter:** Arrivals and Confrontations: Brianna's chosen arrive at the meeting place

((Please, if you enjoyed this, review it! _"Writers on this site are paid only by the reviews that they receive." _I hope you enjoyed this newest installment))


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